Rugby Championship 2015 kicks off in New Zealand this morning, with the All Blacks taking on Argentina.
This should be a one sided affair, considering New Zealand’s record in Rugby Championships. but should make for interesting viewing with the World Cup in mind. Will key players such as Dan Carter and Richie McCaw shy away from contact in a bid not to miss the showpiece event later this year, or will they prove their class that was missing during the Super Rugby season.
Kick off at 09h35.
New Zealand: 15 Israel Dagg, 14 Waisake Naholo, 13 Ma’a Nonu, 12 Sonny Bill Williams, 11 Charles Piutau, 10 Daniel Carter, 9 TJ Perenara, 8 Kieran Read, 7 Richie McCaw (captain), 6 Jerome Kaino, 5 Brodie Retallick, 4 Luke Romano, 3 Owen Franks, 2 Keven Mealamu, 1 Tony Woodcock.
Replacements: 16 Codie Taylor, 17 Wyatt Crockett, 18 Nepo Laulala, 19 Jeremy Thrush, 20 Liam Messam, 21 Andy Ellis, 22 Colin Slade, 23 Ryan Crotty.
Argentina: 15 Joaquin Tuculet, 14 Horacio Agulla, 13 Marcelo Bosch, 12 Jerónimo De la Fuente, 11 Cordero Santiago, 10 Nicolas Sanchez, 9 Thomas Cubelli, 8 Facundo Isa, 7 Juan Martin Fernandez Lobbe, 6 Juan Manuel Leguizamon, 5 Guido Petti Pagadizabal, 4 Manuel Carizza, 3 Ramiro Herrera, 2 Agustin Creevy (captain), 1 Marcos Ayerza.
Replacements: 16 Julian Montoya, 17 Lucas Noguera, 18 Nahuel Chaparro Tetaz, 19 Benjamin Macome, 20 Javier Ortega Desio, 21 Martin Landajo, 22 Santiago González Iglesias, 23 Lucas Gonzalez Amorosino.
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All three on field referee’s are South African:
Craig Joubert in the middle with Jaco Peyper and Stuart Berry assisting.
NZ 3 – 0 Arg
6 minutes
NZ 3 – 3 Arg
13 minutes
NZ 6 – 3 Arg
17 minutes
NZ 11 – 3 Arg
McCaw try and Carter misses the conversion.
22 minutes
Argentina are hanging in there at 11-6 after 35 minutes…
All Blacks in command in the lose stuff, Argentina more than holding their own in the tight stuff…
Carter will take another shot just before halftime…
Carter misses his second kick (2 out of 4)…and it remains 11-6…
Argentina kick it out on the full again…and give the All Blacks a dangerous scrum on the 22 centre field…
Free kick All Blacks…scrum again…
Time up…Argentina need to hold out here…
Or not…Nonu scores…
Plenty of phases…Argentina defended bravely but couldn’t hold the All Blacks out!
Carter nails this one and it is 18-6 at halftime…
The All Blacks deserve that lead but Argentina will be disappointed not to hold out at the end there…
Here we go again…
And the All Blacks earn a penalty straight away…
Carter will take a shot at goal from 52m out…
He’s missed another one…
Still 18-6 after 42 minutes…
From the 22 the All Blacks score a super try!!
Piatau in the corner after some great running, handling and creation of space. Good stuff…
It was a poor restart, it has to be said…
Carter nails the conversion and it is 25-6…
Game over red rover…Argentina will do well to keep this reasonable…
Ah, good to see the All Blacks with tight forwards in the centres…
Just amazing hands by the ABs…SBW wow…
TMO to check…
No try…in touch and lost the ball…Naholo doesn’t get a debut try…
Argentina with a lineout 5m from their line…
They exit well…
The All Blacks attack again, but knock it on this time…
The Argies with a defensive scrum in their 22…
Wow, they attack from their own 22, but then a poor pass puts them under huge pressure…
Read scores…
They had cleaned it up nicely…but then more untidy play gifts Read a try under the sticks…
They showed some enterprise but poor skills…
32-6 after 50 minutes…this could get ugly!
Great run by Naholo, inside pass to Carter, but Perenara drops the inside pass…
Despite a few mistakes just awesome skills by the All Blacks create so much space!
Naholo has had a great debut…he is replaced now…injury…precaution?
When Argentina keep it amongst the forwards they look good…but beyond that there is not much…
Some nice play by Argentina through numerous phases…
Finally the Argentinians get a penalty…
5 minutes without being he All Blacks scoring…that is noticeable in itself…
The Argentinians are 5m out…
Catch and drive…and they score!!
Lovely little move off the back of the maul and the hooker and captain scores…
The conversion is wide and it is 32-11…
32-11 after 57 mins…
The All Blacks take out an Argentinian in the air at the kickoff…
Penalty…and the Argies attack again…
More phases by the Argies…and they earn a penalty advantage…
Penalty it is…and it is kicked out in the All Black 22…
Good maul…and it is collapsed…
They will have another crack from 5m out…
Another try!!
The hooker and captain scores again!!
The conversion is good and it is 32-18…
And the captain and hooker is replaced…huh?
The All Blacks toss it about and knock it again…
Argentina attack and are unlucky…
The All Blacks score…but are penalised…no try…
Argentina can clear…good decision Joubert…
Argentina good at lineout time again…
Now after a few phases good defence by the All Blacks puts the Argies under huge pressure…
The All Blacks get the penalty and choose to scrum…
Intercept try would make this game interesting!!! 😆
Scrum reset…
32-18 after 68 minutes…
All Blacks get the scrum penalty…quick tap…another penalty not back 10…scrum again…
Good tackle on Read…
Ohhhhh…almost intercepted…but another All Black penalty…
The two tries within a minute of half time on either side are the difference at this stage…
Argentina get the turnover at scrum time…oh well done…
The Argies have a scrum 5m from their own line. They did well to keep the All Blacks out several times…
Argentina have more possession in this game…
This time the All Blacks win the turnover at scrum time…and after a few drives at the line Cody Taylor scores…
Cody Taylor scoring on debut…
The conversion is good…39-18…
Argentina did well from minutes 50 to 70…but that is the game over…
5mins to go…39-18…
Tighthead for the All Blacks…can’t really understand the replacement of the Argies captain and front row just after they twice destroyed the All Blacks…
Argies attack but the kick ahead is poor…
The All Blacks counter…
…but finally knock it on…
There has been very, very little aimless kicking in this game…
2 minutes to go…
This time the Argies scrum better and earn a penalty…
1 minute to go…
Ohhhhhh…Argentina clean through…and the last pass doesn’t go to hand…they would have deserved to end off with a last try…
Unlucky…and that is it…
So the final score is 39-18…
Why on earth are they playing on a Friday? Just got home from work.
Argies seem to run onto the field against the AB’s fully expecting to lose 🙄 ….it’s pretty darn disappointing to watch them vs. the AB’s.
@Ben (Comment 95) : I was wondering exactly that!! It gives the All Blacks an extra day to get to SA for next weekend’s test…but why?
@pastorshark (Comment 97) : To give them more prep time and less jetlag time.
@FireTheLooser (Comment 96) : they have no heart agaunst NZ but put them against SA and they play like their lives depend on it. Our dull, boring, predictable, one-dimensional game suits theirs.
They are like the Cheetahs. Crumple against anything foreign but play like lions against the Sharks.
@Orlok Tsubodai (Comment 99) : @FireTheLooser (Comment 96) : ja seems as if they target a game to win and go for it 150%. The rest they just play to get it over and done.
They’ve already beaten Aus and it’s only a matter of time before they beat the once proud Boks. Perhaps this year. God knows they’ve come close in the last few years.
I imagine NZ will remain undefeated against Arg forever.
@JD (Comment 100) : most teams do that. Scotland put 2nd stringers out against the All Blacks and target the Boks.
@Ben (Comment 95) : @pastorshark (Comment 97) : @coolfusion (Comment 98) : could be availability of flights, maybe no flights (of their airline) on Sunday?
@Orlok Tsubodai (Comment 101) : before we write off the Bokke let’s see how they do tomorrow against Ozzies. I just have a feeling we might get a surprise from the team!
@Orlok Tsubodai (Comment 99) : I would agree if we keep on playing our crashball game they love playing us, it’s just so easy to play negative and spoil against that tactics. But I am hopefull that HM will move away from that. In saying that I must also say that he would need to include guys like Whiteley and move away from the big monsters who don’t know how to use space. It probably would not hurt to include a guy like kriel against them at flank. We blame him a lot fir our outdated game but I have a feeling that many of our veteran players also revert back to that plan during the game as their crutch.
@Orlok Tsubodai (Comment 101) : Forever is a long time… 😆
@JD (Comment 103) : Hmmm…